Over the Wall
by Fable
Summary: Original trainer. Gemmei has been held back from the world her entire life, by walls both physical and metaphorical. When she scales one, the rest come crashing down behind, and she soon finds that the outside is nothing like she expected...
1. Gemmei

Disclaimer: The Pokémon themselves are copyrighted by Nintendo. Everything else is mine.   
  
(A/N: Doesn't look _too_ much like a Pokémon fic yet, but it will be. Also, a good 75% of my efforts are towards my fictionpress.net contents at the moment, and from now on I'll be uploading two chapters at a time (which will make sense later) so this won't likely be updated for a while. It will, however, be eventually. Enjoy!)   
  
_It loomed before me, huge, seemingly impassible. A metallic monument of all that held me back from the world. The wall.   
  
Hesitantly, I curled my fingers around a link and hoisted myself up. It was one step. One step out of an infinite number of others. I could not even see the top; the wall disappeared into the clouds. But I continued working my way up. Step, pull, step, pull. I went along in that way for hours, maybe days, and yet the whole thing could have been over in minutes, it felt so fast. It was both an eternity and a second.   
  
I had reached the top of the wall -- or the top of the world, so it seemed from my height. Taking a deep and shaking breath, I precariously lifted myself up, placing both my feet along the very top edge. Gripping a post white-knuckled - oh, how cold it was - I dared to lift my head, seeing beyond my world into the other for the first time.   
  
But all I saw was darkness. Darkness that enveloped everything beyond...and, turning my head, everything behind. I wrestled with myself over the idea of climbing down the other side to see if there was anything at all, when all at once, I toppled over the edge. And down I went.   
  
This time, there was no doubt about it; my fall took forever. I plunged down, downwards into eternity until--   
  
WHAM._   
  
Gemmei hit her bedroom floor headfirst. _What? Am I--_   
  
"Gemmei! Come down, time for breakfast!" _Oh. A dream._ Gemmei hurriedly stripped out of her nightgown and opened up her dresser, trying to decide what to wear. _Jeans? I'd love to, but mother hates to see me in them unless I am doing chores. I guess I should wear a dress._ The women of the small village of Albus always wore dresses, much to Gemmei's annoyance. She slipped on something plain and blue and ran downstairs, making sure to stop short of the bottom. She almost forgot that "ladies never run".   
  
Her younger sister, Gensho (called Gen by most), was already seated at the table. "Morning, mother. Morning, Gen." Gensho was, truly, her mother's daughter. She loved to cook and sew and wear dresses. She also never seemed to mind the fact that Albus was walled in to all but the men of the village, not even sparing any thought to it. Sure, they only ever left to get occasional supplies from other cities - Albus was not _entirely_ self-supporting - but still, staying in a village behind a fence one's whole life could drive certain people to insanity.   
  
It was these thoughts that invaded Gemmei's mind as she sat down at the table. The dream of climbing that fence was not entirely unfamiliar to her -- she'd had the same dream at least once or twice over the past couple of weeks, always waking up at the same time. She supposed for that reason that it was significant, but didn't really know what to do about it, aside from actually climbing the fence.   
  
Dreams are often metaphors, and the fence in Gemmei's dream could easily have represented any number of factors holding her back from the real world, the strict lifestyle she had under her mother for one. However, in this case, it represented an actual fence. A chain-link fence running the entire border of Albus, with only one gate, used for one purpose: the supply runs.   
  
However, she had not considered her village to be strange. For all she knew, they could all have been in the middle of forests and surrounded by fences. It was only her dreams...and some of the conversations she'd overheard from her parents...that made her believe any different.   
  
As the day started, however, Gemmei all but forgot her strange dreams, lost to the mundaneness of breakfast. Nothing worth mentioning happened over the next ten or so minutes...eat, chat, eat some more. She kept her mind mostly on her father, who had left just yesterday on a supply run and would not be expected to return for the next day or two. _I want to go with him someday. Just once. After fourteen years, a change of scenery would be nice._ These thoughts were whimsical...she knew it would never happen. Could never happen. No women left the village, much less young girls.   
  
When everyone was finished, Gemmei and Gen headed for the door, intent on going outside for some fresh air. It was what they did every day, as there was not much to do inside a small house. Today, however, their mother interrupted. "Not today, girls."   
  
"Why not?" the two chorused in unison.   
  
"Never you mind. It is none of your business. I'm going out to talk to Miss Fletcher next door, but I want you two to stay inside today. I'll be back in a while." And with that, she was gone.   
  
Gen, perfectly accepting of the situation, brightly suggested they go to the attic instead.   
  
"And why would we want to do that? We never go up there."   
  
"That's only b'cause we're always outside! Do you have a better idea?"   
  
"Not really. But don't you find it strange that mom won't let us out of the house today?"   
  
"Nope!"   
  
"Why not, might I ask?"   
  
"Cause _I_ know that there's something out there she doesn't want us to see!" Gensho concluded in a sing-songy voice. With that, she pranced up the stairs and headed towards the attic.   
  
_Smart aleck little nine-year-old,_ Gemmei thought as she followed. Catching up with Gen in the attic itself, she inquired further. "What doesn't she want us to see, pray tell?"   
  
"There's a weird man in the village, and he has a big dog!" This was a fairly reasonable explanation; their mother was not fond of dogs. But travelers had never come to Albus before, and Gemmei was not entirely sure whether her sister was telling the truth or not. "The dog looks really weird, too! I didn't see it that much, though...I just glanced at it through my window b'fore mom came into my room."   
  
"Right."   
  
"S'a truth!"   
  
"Sure." Gemmei wasn't quite disbelieving...the thought of someone new was intriguing enough so that she wanted to believe the story. On the other hand, she didn't want her sister making a fool of her, something she was apt to do. To distract from the conversation, Gemmei grabbed one of several boxes lying around and opened it up.   
  
"Y'sure we should be doing that?"   
  
"What were _you_ thinking we were going to get up to in an attic?" with that, Gemmei dived into the contents of the box. "Let's see here. Vintage dresses..."   
  
"Pretty hats!" Gen grabbed a hat that had fallen out of the box and wore it with pride.   
  
"Yes, hats. It would seem that there's nothing but clothing in here." Gemmei took out everything in the box, one by one. A white dress seemed to be the last thing inside...but as she was removing it, she noticed one more thing at the bottom.   
  
Two things, in fact. An old black-and-white photograph in a dusty frame lay on top of a small leather-bound book. Gemmei removed these items, too, and Gen immediately took interest, grabbing for the photo. "This lady has the same dog!"   
  
"What?" Gemmei took the photo back and looked at it. A young woman stood in a field, smiling, posing...beside her stood a creature strange to the two sisters. "That's not even a dog! That looks like...some kind of tiger or something."   
  
"Tigers don't have manes and bushy white tails!"   
  
"Well, it is certainly not a dog!"   
  
The two girls stared at the picture for a few more seconds, trying to figure out _what_ exactly the woman was posing with so casually. Soon, however, Gensho lost her interest and picked up the book instead. "Read this!" she demanded. "I want to know what it says!"   
  
"You can read just fine."   
  
"But you're better at it!"   
  
"Fine." Gemmei took the book from her sister and opened it up. The pages were slightly yellow, and the first one simply had a name on it.   
  
_

Suiko Newbury

_   
  
"Go on, next page!"   
  
"I'm going!" Gemmei turned to the next page. "March 5, 1948--"   
  
Her reading had been interrupted by the sound of a door slamming. "Girls! I'm home! Where are you?" 


	2. March 5, 1948

(A/N: As promised, the next two chapters have taken a long time in coming -- but here they are. They're likely not coming out any faster either, I'm afraid.)

_March 5, 1948   
  
Father gave me this diary just hours ago, as today is a turning point in my life. In all of our lives, actually. Today is the day we leave our old lives behind, to carve out an existence in a forest uninhabited by any humans thus far.   
  
It was this morning that we started our journey to The Oakwoods. "We" consists of several families from a place known as Aster City. A rather large, busy place...but a friend of my father's, a man known as Domingo Albus, wanted to get back to a simpler life. He recruited several like-minded men, and here we all are. With a caravan, almost as if we were pioneers.   
  
I'm sure I'm not going to like where we're going - I'm a city girl at heart - but it's not my decision, is it? I might as well just make the best of things. And in fact there is _one_ major advantage to moving to The Oakwoods.   
  
Once there, Father will let Sachio (my younger brother) and I have our own Pokémon to train! This is something we have been wanting for years, and now it will finally come to pass. We are both, of course, very excited at the prospect. Sachio wants a grass-type of some sort...I have yet to decide on the matter myself.   
  
Anyway, we have paused to have lunch now. I suppose I'll get back to writing later.   
  
--Suiko _


	3. Over

Gemmei's head snapped toward the door. "Uh-oh. Mother's back."   
  
"So? Now we can ask her about this!" Gen proudly held up the photo of the woman "An' that," she added, pointing to the still-open diary.   
  
"Actually, I thought it might be in our best interests _not_ to let her know that we've seen these...hm?"   
  
"Why?" Gen was starting to get a bit pouty.   
  
"Girls! Where are you?" Gemmei jumped at the second shout, and Gen was starting to feed off of her sister's nervousness. She dropped the picture, which hit the floor with a loud _bang_, and both girls winced.   
  
"Up here!" Gemmei shouted. "We'll be right down!" She then leaned over towards Gen and spoke in a fierce whisper. "Ok, mom doesn't want us to leave the house because there's a...I guess we'll call it a dog...out there. Which looks," she pointed at the picture on the ground, "like that. She doesn't even seem to want us to know such a creature exists, so there's no use upsetting her, right?"   
  
Gen nodded mutely.   
  
"Good. Now let's put this stuff back where it belongs." She handed the diary to Gen. "Put this and the picture back first, then the other stuff. I'll talk to mom."   
  
Gen complied, though not without some degree of reluctance. Gemmei went out the door and down the stairs, to meet her mom waiting at the bottom.   
  
"What are you two doing up there?"   
  
"Just...playing dress-up." It was a bad explanation, and one that Gemmei was sure she would regret giving, but her fears were unfounded.   
  
"I see. Well, there must be far better places to go than an attic! Why don't you go up to one of your rooms to play for a little while before starting your chores?"   
  
"Alright." At this point, Gen peeked her head through the door, having piled everything back in. She had her arms hugged to her chest, and was shivering.   
  
"Brr...it's cold up there!"   
  
"Well, let's go into my room. It'll be warm there...not that it seemed so cold in the attic to me."   
  
Gen didn't reply, but their mom nodded her assent and shooed them away.   
  
The two scurried into Gemmei's room, Gen still showing the signs of her discomfort, and sat down on her bed. Gemmei sighed. "So...now what?"   
  
Gen just giggled in reply.   
  
"What?" Obviously something was up, but Gemmei didn't want to appear too interested in it. Nor did she have to, for Gen then uncrossed her arms and pulled the diary out from under her arms.   
  
Gemmei was shocked. "Wh--you were sneaking _that_ out?"   
  
Gen nodded proudly and handed it over. "Now, read it again!"   
  
Grudgingly impressed at her sister's cleverness, Gemmei took it and opened up to the page they hand been on. "Ok, let's see. 'March 5, 1948. Father gave me this diary...'"   
  
She read the first entry, then put the book down in confusion. "Pokémon? Is that what the dog-thing was? What does she mean by a 'grass-type'?"   
  
Gen's puzzlement was overtaken by her excitement. "Neat! I wanna Pokémon too!"   
  
"I'm so confused. Is this 'Pokémon' the reason mother doesn't want us to go outside?"   
  
"Read it s'more!"   
  
Gemmei was about to when they were again interrupted. "Girls!"   
  
Both sighed. "Looks like we'll have to put the book aside for now...time to work."   
  
---   
  
Gemmei and Gen usually got through their chores pretty quickly, but on that day they set a record. After finishing these, their lessons started. The girls were home-schooled by their mother, as most of the children of Albus were. When their school day as finally finished, however, they went right back to Gemmei's room to continue reading.   
  
The next several entries were not to reveal much. They read about the settlement Suiko and her companions were beginning to create. The Pokémon were mentioned occasionally, but with no real details. All the girls knew was that Pokémon seemed to be common companions for the people, and that they could apparently do any number of useful things.   
  
Gemmei had gotten up to September 17, 1948 when there was a loud knock at the door downstairs. Although their mother was there to answer it, Gen curiously poked her head out the door to see who it was. After a few seconds, she gasped and ran out of the room.   
  
"Daddy!"   
  
"What?" Gemmei was astonished to hear this. Their father was back? How did he get here so early?   
  
She ran downstairs as well, and sure enough, there her father was standing. His return had been a surprise for everyone -- even the girls' mother, who appeared relieved that he was home.   
  
Gemmei was happy to see him, and went up to give him a hug, asking what had happened.   
  
"Well..." he smiled. "I decided to leave the group so that I could be here more tomorrow. It's not every day your daughter turns 13, is it?"   
  
Gemmei smiled back. Indeed, it was her birthday tomorrow. It would be nice to have the whole family there for it. The book was therefore forgotten by the two for the rest of the day, and they spent their last hour or so before bed in other activities.   
  
---   
  
Gemmei woke up early the next day, unable to sleep any longer for excitement. Partially it was because of her birthday; in addition, however, curiosity nagged at her concerning the diary and the mysterious Pokémon mentioned within. That book was in Gen's room now, however, and Gemmei felt more like going downstairs and eating some breakfast than rummaging around in her sister's room. That decided, she got dressed and ran downstairs - this time, not worrying about how ladylike she acted.   
  
Which was fine, apparently - only her father was in the kitchen, and he was a bit more lax with the girls. For that reason, when Gemmei saw her gift lying in the corner, she was sure it was he who was behind it.   
  
"A bicycle?!"   
  
He chuckled. "It'll give you some good exercise, anyway -- the one practical excuse I can think of for it. Happy birthday!"   
  
---   
  
The day wore on. Gen didn't look overly impressed at the bicycle, but asked to ride it after she saw Gemmei do so. Their mother didn't seem too happy, although she said nothing of the matter.   
  
"Ah..." Gemmei looked pleased as she and Gen came in to start their chores. "I'm so glad we were able to go outside today!"   
  
"Yeah...I kinda wish that man was still around, though."   
  
"Because of the 'dog'?"   
  
"Mm-hm..."   
  
"Well, we still have the diary to read, right? Speaking of which, I suggest we do so after our chores. There must be some other significant mention of the Pokémon in it sooner or later."   
  
Which is what they were prepared to do afterwards, except that Gen had hidden the diary "someplace safe" in her room just before bed, and now had no recollection of where it was.   
  
"Oh, come on, Gen..._think!_ how could you forget, it was only yesterday!"   
  
"I dunno...I was tired when I did it! I don't r'member!"   
  
"Aaa..." Gemmei restrained the urge to start shaking her sister. "You're just like mom, you know...she never remembers where she hides things either."   
  
Unfortunately for the two, neither girl had found it before their mother had called up to them, telling them it was time for bed. It was only as they were just retiring to their separate rooms for the night that Gen suddenly rushed into Gemmei's room, proudly holding it up.   
  
"Foun' it!"   
  
"Where, might I ask?"   
  
"Under my mattress."   
  
"Uh-huh. Well, good job...unfortunately, however, it's a bit late for reading it now."   
  
"Aww."   
  
"Yeah. tomorrow, ok?"   
  
Gen left her sister's room, still carrying the diary, and Gemmei put the lights out and crawled under her covers. In what felt like minutes, a familiar sight greeted her.   
  
_It loomed before me, huge, seemingly impassible._   
  
"Huh?"   
  
Gemmei was only a few seconds into the regular dream when she woke up suddenly, although she was unsure as to how. A look at her clock revealed that it was two hours after she'd fallen asleep. _How did that happen?_ She wondered. _Didn't I just go to bed?_   
  
Shrugging it off, Gemmei lay in bed for a few moments and thought over the dream. _Stupid thing...why do I keep dreaming about it? I'm not actually about to climb that fence. And even if I went through the gate, I wouldn't be able to get anywhere...   
  
Or could I? I have a bicycle now! I bet I could go someplace nearby, maybe see a Pokémon if they're not very rare...and be back before it was time to get up!_   
  
Once that thought had occurred to Gemmei, she couldn't believe how simple it seemed. _That wall has been holding me back all my life...but it would be such an easy obstacle to cross!_ At that, she hastily crawled out of her warm bed and crept out her bedroom door.   
  
Her plans for her freedom were simple; find a secluded spot, outside the gate, where she could sit down with a flashlight and read the diary some more. That was all she wanted for now, but it would require a trip to Gen's room: she was the one who had the book last.   
  
First, Gemmei dug up the flashlight from her drawer; that was the easy part. Then she stole down the hall, hoping she was being quiet, and approached her sister's door. Once there, she carefully turned the knob and pushed it open.   
  
Finding the book proved easy -- Gen had put it on the nightstand above her bed. _She's gonna have to put it someplace safer if she doesn't want us to get discovered,_ Gemmei thought. She removed it and was just about to leave the room when her sister spoke up.   
  
"What're you doing?" she mumbled sleepily.   
  
"Um..." Gemmei froze. She hadn't thought about what to do in this situation. "Nothing...I just wanna take a look at this outside, to get some fresh air. Ok?"   
  
"Mommy says we can't go out there at night!" she was right, too. Gemmei sighed.   
  
"Ok, look...I'll just take it into my room then."   
  
"You're lying! I'm getting mom!" Gen stumbled out of bed and rushed to the door.   
  
"What the heck are you doing?!" Gemmei hissed. "I'm not lying to you! Just let me go!" She went to the door and held it closed. "Come on, please..."   
  
"No!" Gen tried to force the door open, then stopped suddenly. She stood still for a few seconds, yawned, and slumped against the door.   
  
"Hey...are you alright?"   
  
"M'tired..." Gen started to slide down to the floor.   
  
Gemmei sighed again, in relief. _Sheesh...crazy little kid. Guess she wasn't really awake after all._ She grabbed Gen before she hit the floor and half-led, half-dragged her back to her bed. The younger sister was asleep again by the time she was under the covers, and Gemmei slipped out silently.   
  
The trip outside went smoothly - no one else woke up - and Gemmei was soon outside and on her bicycle. She was halfway to the gate when a voice stopped her.   
  
"Hey!"   
  
_Oh no...I've been caught!_ Gemmei froze, but soon realized that the voice was that of a man she didn't recognize. As the only man _supposed_ to be in the village was her father, she caught on to the fact that this man must be the one with the "dog". Slowly, she turned around.   
  
"Hello," he spoke up. "Are you going somewhere?"   
  
_It_ is the guy Gen told me about! Must be, anyway...I don't see that "dog" with him though. Gemmei was somewhat frightened of him, but his tone didn't seem malicious, so she spoke up.   
  
"Out there," she said, pointing in the direction of the gate and trying to sound flippant about it.   
  
"I see. Well, there's a lot of...dangerous things...out there. Do you have anything to protect yourself with?"   
  
"No..." all Gemmei wanted was to get away from this man and leave, but the opportunity didn't seem to be there.   
  
"Well, here, maybe I can help you with that..." he reached into his bag, but Gemmei stopped him.   
  
"No, that's fine!" she said. "I don't need anything. Thank you anyway." She turned around and trotted to the gate, sighing with relief.   
  
_Whew! He probably wanted to give me a gun or something...or that creature, but I highly doubt_ that._Anyway, now that that's over, time to see what's out there!_   
  
She unlocked the gate and opened it, marveling at how simple the act was. Her plan was to savour the moment for a while before stepping over, but now that she was there, her mind had changed. Gemmei quickly moved to the other side, closed the gate behind her, and took off on her bicycle -- just like that!   
  
_I don't believe it...I'm finally over!_ Gemmei grinned as she sped up, putting more and more distance between her and Albus. Nothing could stop her, she felt -- and then she ran over something with a _crunch._   
  
She stopped, turned around, and stared at the creature that had been caught in her path. A bird! And a fairly large one at that. She had not killed it - only ran over its wing - but it was very hurt nonetheless. _Oh no!_ She ran over to examine it closer.   
  
The bird itself was a dark purplish colour, with red and white parts. Gemmei had seen these birds flying overhead before, but never close up. Now that she was next to one, she temporarily forgot its pain in her fascination.   
  
She was soon to have something else to occupy her mind, however. The little bird met her eyes and gave a sharp, hard cry--   
  
"TAILLOW!"   
  
--and dozens of the birds came out of the surrounding trees, diving at her.   
  
"Aaahh!" Gemmei hopped back onto her bicycle and started furiously peddling, but she was no match for the flock, who had swarmed her within seconds. 


End file.
